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Objectives: Oral health can affect quality of life in all course of life, which is a key factor of general health. Dental caries, periodontitis and oral cancer are of the highest burden of oral diseases. Rising prevalence of soft drinks and alcoholic beverages consumption due to easy access and socio-demographic altering has increased the concerns on oral health. In this review our purpose was to show effects of the most consumed beverages on oral health in people older than 15 years. Methods: The review was based on papers published in last 10 years, searched with combined key words related to types of drinks and specific oral health problems. We included 4 older studies due to lack of newer studies on subjected topics. Results: Sugar-free soft drinks are found less cariogenic and erosive than regular versions in limited number of studies. Alcohol consumption is shown as one of the risk factors of prevalence and severity of periodontitis and is proven to have synergistic effects along with tobacco on oral cancer risk. Consumption of soft drinks and alcoholic beverages was related with tooth loss whether dental caries or periodontal diseases. Conclusion: There is good evidence for association between soft drinks and oral health problems, but still no clear answer exists about strength of association between sugar-free soft drinks and dental caries. Also the knowledge about influence of alcohol is inadequate. Since consuming style affects erosive potential of drinks manufacturers should be required to add some recommendations on labels about drinking style.

The paper discusses the question of privatisation of the in-patient care sector in Poland. The references to the general reforming processes are made, as well as the legal context of ownership changes is presented. First part of the article describes the forms of privatisation applied in Poland, such as privatisation of the management, partial privatisation, functional privatisation and total privatisation. The basic data concerning legal regulations currently being in force is also included. Legal status is an important obstacle for the process of privatisation, since the regulations are incoherent and ambiguous. The project of Commercialisation and Privatisation of Independent Public Health Care Facilities Law was presented in 2001, but the political situation was unfavourable for such a regulation. The paper discusses also the potential profits that may be gathered during the privatisation, which may be proved by the experiences in the field of out-patient care, as well as the examples of other countries. It is stated that success of privatisation depends on changes in the structure of sources of financing health care system. The last part of the article describes the previous course of privatisation processes of in-patient sector. Presently about 18% of hospitals in Poland are private facilities, but their role in the system is marginal. The case of hospital in Wiecbork, which was the first bankrupt private hospital in Poland, is presented as the example of dangers caused by the invalid law. The final conclusion is that there is an urgent need in Poland to create clear and coherent legal frames for the privatisation of hospitals, as well as harmonisation of the changes with general reforms of the health care system.